Wiktionary

lignum

English edit

Noun edit

lignum (countable and uncountable, plural lignums)

  1. A perennial shrub, Duma florulenta, native to semiarid areas of inland Australia.
  2. Land covered by lignum.
    • 1992, Bob Magor, Blood on the Board, page 10:
      The assembled in the lignum / Where the Boss said pigs were thick.

See also edit

Anagrams edit

Latin edit

Etymology edit

From Proto-Italic *legnom, from Proto-Indo-European *leǵ-no-m (“that which is collected”), from *leǵ- (“to collect”), with the Italic form interpreted as "wood collected for firemaking".

An alternative derivation from Proto-Indo-European *legʰ- (“to lie”), and associated interpretation as "stray wood", seems equally possible, phonetically and semantically.[1]

Pronunciation edit

Noun edit

lignum n (genitive lignī); second declension

  1. firewood
  2. (later Latin) wood tissue
  3. tree
    • 405 CE, Jerome, Vulgate Psalm.1.3:
      Et erit tamquam lignum transplantatum iuxta rivulos aquarum quod fructum suum dabit in tempore suo. Et folium eius non defluet et omne quod fecerit prosperabitur
      And he shall be like a tree which is planted near the running waters, which shall bring forth its fruit, in due season. And his leaf shall not fall off: and all whosoever he shall do shall prosper (Douay-Rheims translation)

Declension edit

Second-declension noun (neuter).

Case Singular Plural
Nominative lignum ligna
Genitive lignī lignōrum
Dative lignō lignīs
Accusative lignum ligna
Ablative lignō lignīs
Vocative lignum ligna

Derived terms edit

Descendants edit

Several forms inherited from the plural ligna, reinterpreted as a feminine singular noun.

References edit

  • “lignum”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  • “lignum”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
  • lignum in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
  • lignum in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
  1. ^ De Vaan, Michiel (2008) Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 7), Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN, pages 340-1
Retrieved from "https://en.wiktionary.org/w/index.php?title=lignum&oldid=78446976"